JACKSON AND THE KING'S SON

Michael Jackson's people seem totally convinced that his attempt to salvage his career ("raise funds for Katrina") is going to take place, announcing that Mariah Carey, James Brown and Snoop Dogg are all on board for the project.

It's interesting that so far, the announcements of the line-up are coming from the Jackson camp, rather than anywhere else:

Jackson is "continuing to reach out to artists who would like to work on him on this project", his spokeswoman said.

"He humbly hopes [it] will make a tremendous difference to all individuals who have been affected by this tragedy."

And which label will have the honour of releasing From The Bottom of My Heart? 2 Seas Records.

No, nor had we - it turns out to be owned by Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad al Khalifa, the son of the King of Bahrain. Bahrain, of course, is a constiutional monarchy where it's illegal to form a political party. In 2002, Bahrain issued a decree granting immunity to those who had commited human rights abuses in the past. In 2004, Amnest International had to become involved to secure the release of Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja following his detention and the closure of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. In April, Ghada Jamsheer was charged with "insulting the judiciary", a thinly-veiled attack on her for daring to campaign for women's rights in the country. And more recently, Bahraini security forces beat human rights protesters during a campaign against unemployment. (Despite being an oil-rich nation, the unemployment rate in the country was most recently estimated at 15%; compared with, say, 10% in the Czech Republic.)

Seems to be an odd choice to invite a member of that ruling family to underwrite a charity single, but perhaps we're missing something.

Which reminds us - Jim McCabe was in touch with a link to this Guardian piece, in which his former PR manager (dumped after 17 years) Bob Jones spills where some of the bodies are buried down at Neverland:

In 1984 a young White House counsel, John Roberts, today President Bush's nomination to become the Chief Justice of the United States, wrote a memo in response to a request from Jackson that President Reagan send a letter telling him how great he was.

"The office of presidential correspondence is not yet an adjunct of Michael Jackson's PR firm," reads the memo. "Frankly, I find the obsequious attitude of some members of the White House staff toward Mr Jackson's attendants, and the fawning posture they would have the president of the United States adopt, more than a little embarrassing."

Almost makes you want Roberts to be approved by Congress on the spot, doesn't it?

More pertinently, as Jackson claims to be carrying from the bottom of his heart about the poor of New Orleans, is Jones' revelation that he refers to poor black people as "splaboos"; and through laziness or being too softly-monged on drugs, Jackson cheerfully fakes illness to get out of work:

Jones recounts one performance by the King at the Soul Train Music Awards. Pleading a broken ankle, Jackson performed from a chair. As soon as he reached home with his 12-year-old friend, Jackson tossed his crutches aside.

Hard to believe that that's the same man who turned up at court in his pyjamas because of his bad ba... oh, hang about, it isn't, is it?

There's other wonderful allegations in there (Jermaine Jackson made some mumbling about taking legal action, but so far Jones has received not so much as a cease-and-desist) - Jackson trying to get Liz Taylor to persuade the Queen to knight him, for example. And then, there's the growing realisation that something might be wrong:

"We were in Paris and we're going to the Louvre and the paparazzi is there on motorbikes following," says Jones. "We got to the Louvre and he got out of a bus hand-holding one of these little boys."

Alarmed at the implications for Jackson's image, Jones challenged the singer, to be told that he didn't care.

"I told his manager, I said you're going to get into trouble, this can't happen. And I also told the attorneys and the business manager. These attorneys and the manager making all this money, I guess they thought I was some kind of fool trying to buck the system."

Jones seems a broken man - and a broke man; he was canned by the Jackson camp and left without any pension or income, which is why he's taken full advantage of never having signed a non-dsiclosure agreement; most of all, he seems to be stressed by having to unpick the years of work he did building Jacko up:

Despite all his work to create a myth as the Peter Pan King of Pop, says Jones, people will only remember Michael Jackson for one thing. "He damaged whatever legacy he has. When people think of him now, they think of molestation."


Perhaps Michael's rich friends will buy all the copies

music katrina hurricane katrina michael jackson bahrain mariah carey